However, I had them toasted with lashings of butter this morning and they tasted pretty darn good. Just like Easter in fact. And they're wholemeal (mostly - I ran out of strong white flour) which makes them healthy right? Basically one of your five a day with raisins in too... Anyway, here's how you make them and I'll throw in my mistakes along the way so together we can work towards the perfect bun! Learn from your mistakes and all that...
Makes 8 mini hot cross buns, 4 regular size
Ingredients
250 g strong white plain flour (I had to sub 100 g strong wholemeal flour because I ran out of strong white...)
1 egg
1 heaped teaspoon ground mixed spice
100 g sultanas
100 ml milk
1/2 teaspoon dried yeast
1/4 teaspoon salt
25 g caster sugar
25 g butter
Honey to glaze
1.5 tablespoons flour for the crosses
Method
1) Combine flour, sugar, salt and mixed spice in a bowl.
2) Rub in the butter until a fine breadcrumb consistency.
3) Add the sultanas and mix through.
4) Sprinkle over the yeast.
5) Heat the milk until just warm and beat in the egg. Add this to the dry ingredients and combine with a knife.
6) Leave to stand for 5 minutes or so.
7) Roll your dough into ball shapes and place on a baking sheet. Cover with cling film or a placcy bag.
8) Leave to prove in a warm place for 45 minutes to an hour ish (or until doubled in size. I could have done with proving longer I think but it was already 11 pm and I was tired and quite frankly couldn't be bothered to wait. Rookie error!)
9) Once proved, preheat oven to 200 degrees c.
10) Combine the plain flour with 1 tablespoon of water until making a paste. This is where I really struggled. At first my paste was too thick, but adding more water made it lumpy and too tricky to pipe. I resorted to artistically drizzling on the crosses with a spoon. It then transpired that when I took the buns out the oven, I had made the mix too thin and my crosses disappeared, weep. I think it would be worth persevering with a thick paste and piping crosses on the buns for a distinct look.
11) Bake for 12-15 minutes, although I had mine in for 12 minutes and feel they might be overbaked slightly - so definitely check after 8 - 10 minutes!
12) Glaze with honey.
13) Devour.
Well, I let mine stand on a cooling rack overnight (I feel another rookie error, they were a bit hard this morning!). But I promise, cut in half, toasted and with butter, these were a fantastic start to the day! I will just have to make another batch to perfect the technique, what a pity!